September 11, 2009 - If you're looking for an adrenaline rush or an experience that puts you in the shoes of a character fighting their way through near impossible odds or making death defying leaps, the action genre has you covered. It can easily be said that the action game is one of the pillars of gaming, with many genres splintering off from it – Survival Horror, Stealth Action, Action RPGs all derive from the desire to provide a visceral thrill of playing and conquering both a game and your enemies.

February 25, 2009 - We've spent the last couple of days doing some very strange things. We've created strawberry people and anthropomorphic clam-stars; we've grown to extraordinary lengths then wrapped ourselves around and through houses, trees and pyramids before flying up into the sky to writhe about like a sea serpent; we've flown out into space to watch a parade of 30,000 avatars all marching on the spot atop a pink space worm called GIRL; and we've reached the frickin' MOON with aforementioned pink space worm. Yes, we've been playing Noby Noby Boy and it's great.
The latest utterly bizarre creation from Keita Takahashi (he of Katamari Damacy infamy), Noby Noby Boy defies conventions, and is really just an unstructured sandbox for the player to explore, free from the usual need to progress or achieve. It's a fascinating release for a number of reasons. Not only is it great fun to play, but it's yet another example of just how much the notion of what a videogame actually is can vary. The game industry may often feel like all it does is pump out generic games, but the reality is that there have always been strange, convention-defying projects, and this feature is a celebration of some of those games.
To give you an idea of some of the areas we'll be exploring, we're going to be talking about games that are abstract, games that break the fourth wall, and games – like Noby Noby Boy – that throw away conventional structures entirely. Patch, do you want to kick it off?

November 21, 2007 - The online game portal GameTap operates on a subscription-based business model, but it also makes several games available to play for free. One of these recently added free-to-play titles is the legendary Psychonauts, the Tim Schaefer-designed laugh fest that is loved by everyone but played by no one.

May 22, 2007 - This week's topic: Characters who desperately need their own spin-off games. Each of the following characters has appeared in games (some in numerous titles), but never in any sort of starring role. Either they act merely as side-kicks to the hero, or they are just too dastardly to ever have been given the chance to shine. Well, now they have it. While some of these games have no chance of ever getting made, others had darn well be put together as soon as possible. Plus, we're always happy to put together a Top 10 list that prominently features Psychonauts.

October 11, 2006 - Valve announced today that Tim Schafer's madcap mentalist adventure Psychonauts is now available for purchase and download via Steam. Players silly enough not to have played the highly hilarious platformer yet can grab the game digitally for just $19.99.

September 14, 2006 - Today publisher Majesco and Valve (creators of Half-Life and the Steam broadband gaming platform) announced an agreement to deliver Majesco's PC games via Steam. Starting now, BloodRayne 1 & 2 and Advent Rising are available for owners of personal computers to download through their internet tubes. The ever-acclaimed Psychonauts, from Double Fine Productions, will be offered in early October.

July 26, 2006 - Today's column is about how I accosted Tim Schaefer this one time.
Wait, let me back up. So this happened last year -- Psychonauts had just gone gold, and to celebrate, Majesco threw a "wrap party," which turned out to be one of the best industry events I'd ever been to. They rented out a great club up in the North Beach area of downtown San Francisco and invited damn near everybody.
As it turned out, had Majesco known that both Psychonauts and Advent Rising were going to bomb horribly at retail and basically drive their company out of the console games business, they might have been a little more fiscally responsible. At the time, though, every eye in the room was positively misty with unfettered optimism, or alcohol, or both. We toasted Double Fine and Tim Schaefer and creativity.

April 25, 2006 - Welcome to IGN's weekly countdown of the exceptional, fascinating, and absurd: something we like to call Top 10 Tuesday. Every week we'll feature the top ten games, characters, fashion statements or whatever else we can think of that in some way relates to gaming and its history. And just because it's called Top 10 Tuesday doesn't mean it's always going to be a list of the best -- we like to razz on stuff as much as praising it. From counting down the best consoles ever to revealing the worst use of fish heads in a videogame, this is where it's at.
It seems like nearly every new game is either a sequel or part of an established franchise. It's understandable, establishing a new intellectual property can be a huge financial risk. However, some of these original titles are amongst the best out there. This is why today we honor those shining stars that stood alone, never to become part of an established franchise in our list of the top games we think deserve a sequel. To keep things simple, we narrowed it down to games that never saw a sequel, or a prequel, in any form. We've even included suggested titles for the sequels that we think will give the games that extra something to ensure they sell.

January 30, 2006 - Comic books and videogames have plenty of crossover. The X-Men and Spider-Man have annual videogame showings from Activision, Metal Gear Solid and Street Fighter are among many successful games turned comics. Generally, we focus on the comic books we'd love to see turned into games. For a change of pace, we're flipping the concept to provide you with our top ten wishlist of videogames that should become comics.

May 2, 2005 - Tim Schafer has a loyal legion of fanboys for good reason. The creator of PC classics Full Throttle and Grim Fandango is one of the most innovative game designers in the industry. Previously, Schafer worked at LucasArts, but left the company a half-decade ago to start his own company, Double Fine Productions. After a long journey that involved multiple publishers and a slow development process, Psychonauts has finally landed on story shelves.

April 19, 2005 - After five years (at least) of slaving, sweating, slobbering development; after publisher changes and near-death experiences and the non-arrival of a midget army; after much love and coding and laughter; Tim Schafer's Psychonauts is finally shipping to stores.